New York City bankruptcy laws are controlled by the Southern District of New York court. These laws and amendments are also relevant to the rest of the Southern District which includes Dutchess, New York, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Westchester, with concurrent jurisdiction over Columbia, Ulster, and Greene.

The first thing you need to know is … don’t worry! We will explain everything you need to know.

These changes will not affect the advice/directives that your legal council initially gave you.  We have included the SDNY (Southern District New York) Bankruptcy Court amendments solely for your information.  If you are concerned, you should contact your legal advisor, however, as stated above, there’s no need to worry as the whole entire amendment is technical in nature and will not effect your Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Amended Discharge Orders

It has been brought to the Court’s attention that the Discharge of Debtor Order of Final Decree entered in this case on January 15, 2010 was not in compliance with The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 due to a clerical error; and the Debtor having been required to comply with the Bankruptcy Code in effect at the time the discharge order was entered, see Commissioner of Administrative Services v. Spell (In re Spell), 650 F.2d 375, 377 (2d Cir. 1981); it is hereby

Pursuant to the power of this Court under 11 U.S.C. § 105(a) and Rule 60(a), which states that “[t]he court may correct a clerical mistake or mistake arising from  an oversight or omission whenever one is found in a judgment, order, or other part of the record. The court may do so on motion or on its own, with or without notice;” and is made applicable to bankruptcy cases under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9024, the order entered by the Court on January 15, 2010 is amended nunc pro tunc [means retroactively] to comply with the Bankruptcy Code in effect at the time the discharge order was entered

This is something the SDNY Bankruptcy Court is apparently doing sua sponte (i.e., of its own accord) in all of the personal bankruptcy cases in which discharge orders (i.e., orders wiping out debts at the conclusion of the case) were entered after the effective date of a 2005 amendment to the Bankruptcy Code known as The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCA).

The reason for this is to clarify that the Discharge Orders that were previously entered after BAPCA’s effective date (which was of 4/20/05 for certain provisions and for other provisions later in 2005) were Discharge Orders that were entered based on the law then in effect which was BAPCA.

For that reason the last sentence of the Amended Discharge of Debtor Order of Final Decree reads: “the order entered by the Court on [date] is amended nunc pro tunc [i.e., retroactively] to comply with the Bankruptcy Code in effect at the time the discharge order was entered.

The case referred to in the Amended Discharge Order of Commissioner of Administrative Services v. Spell (In re Spell),  650 F.2d 375, 377 (2d Cir. 1981) involved the following issue on appeal: “whether the dischargeability of Spell’s debt to the State should be determined by the law in effect on August 9, 1978, when Spell was discharged in bankruptcy, or by the law in effect on March 4, 1980, when the bankruptcy judge ruled on the Commissioner’s complaint to determine dischargeability of the debt.” The Second Circuit held that the law in effect at time of discharge should control and reversed the District Court.

As of today there are no apparent updates or further amendments that we could find. All the information available to me at the time of writing appears to indicate that the information above is up to date.  If you have any concerns or questions I recommend contacting the legal council you initially used at the time the bankruptcy was filed.  May we all have prosperous times ahead.

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